NCUA Bans Ex-Managers Who Were ‘Home Alone’ Managing Tiny CUs

The NCUA on Tuesday issued prohibition orders prohibiting five individuals from participating in the affairs of any federally insured financial institution.

Four of the five apparently couldn’t resist the opportunity to steal from credit unions where they were the sole employees.

Sharon Broadway stole $2.1 million from the United Catholic Credit Union of Temperance, Mich. and forced the tiny $303,261 cooperative into conservatorship. The 62-year-old was sentenced Jan. 17 to a minimum of 45 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,598,197.16.

As manager, secretary, board member and sole employee of the credit union, Broadway was able to conceal her crimes for years using a complex money laundering scheme involving forged checks and multiple aliases, according to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.

Georgia Schwartz, former employee of the $641,393 Glen Ullin Credit Union of Glen Ullin, N.D., was adjudged guilty of embezzlement and misapplication from a credit union according to the NCUA’s release.

She was sentenced last fall to time served, three years supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $130,119.19. The crime, which occurred over a nine-year period, apparently shocked the tiny town with a population of just 819 after the credit union was purchased by the $318 million Western Cooperative Credit Union of Williston, N.D. and members received letters informing them funds missing from their accounts had been returned.

Members told the Bismarck-based Great Plains Examiner in May 2012 they were having difficulty building a criminal case, because the local sheriff’s department and North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations could not establish whether the statute of limitations on criminal fraud had expired. However, after the newspaper publicity, the FBI took over the investigation and filed charges.

Pamela Emig and Deborah Bomia, former employees of the $1.5 million Enterprise Credit Union in Enterprise, Kan., were both banned from federally insured financial institutions for their roles in stealing nearly $1 million from the 478-member cooperative.

Emig was sentenced to three years in prison, two years supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $819,405.15. Bomia was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $85,233.75.

According to U.S. District Attorney Barry Grissom, Emig kited checks between members’ accounts to conceal her fraudulent activities. He said her strategy entailed making a large deposit in an account toward the end of a month, which would be included in the general ledger but not sent to the corporate checking account until the middle of the following month.

At that time, he said, a larger check would be drafted from a different account. Despite being taken over by the Kansas Department of Credit Unions in August 2011, ECU survived the theft thanks to nearly 18% net worth, which has since been reduced to 7.46% as of Dec. 31.

Meanwhile, Ashley Ayotte,a former employee of the $472 million SeaComm FCU of Massena, N.Y., pleaded guilty to the charge of grand larceny. Ayotte was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $23,500.

NCUA enforcement orders are available online and for inspection at the agency’s Alexandria, Va. headquarters in its Office of General Counsel. Violation of a prohibition order is a felony offense punishable by imprisonment and a fine of up to $1 million.